In the infant days of SEO and website building was a time when it was still easy to rank websites using methods we now call ‘Black hat’. During that time a domain name had significant power to rank website, however, this ranking method did not last forever and it didn’t take Google long to weed out the dodgy sites. Google updated its algorithms to address exact match domain names that do not have other supporting ranking elements such as good content and relevant images.

Apparently, the rationale for ranking of domain names has changed. One may begin to wonder: “what level of impact does a domain name have on SEO?” This is the million-dollar question.

Google Algorithms Changed the Way we Rank Do you remember the events of 2012 when Google made changes to its ranking algorithms that shook the world of domain names SEO to its very foundations. Google was fed up with companies attempting to improve their ranking by augmenting the existing domain name with frail websites that get ranking at the end. For instance, a company that desire to be ranked for “Laptop Computers” will simply purchase “laptopcomputers.com” and immediately, the website starts ranking. As you may expect, these websites which usually lacked content, no longer have the required content to rank. They used to simply slap up a few keywords studded webpages. Google does not like such frail methods of ranking. In response to the rife practice google did not totally drop the value of domain names for SEO, but made a profound change that caused a of reshuffle in website rankings.

What Happened?

The way the search engines rank websites have not really changed that much and the fundamental theory has remained the same. The goal is to provide search engine users with quality websites that provide right answers to queries. Follow the best practices required for search engine rankings by providing consistent quality content. These are things that every website owner can do.

A unique element among the requirements that cannot be plagiarised is your domain name. In essence, your domain name may not have the power to rank your website like it used to do, but it can however provide the following benefits.

increased click through rates;

increased trust by search engine users;

command more attention in the search engine result pages; and

increased brand recognition.

Getting the Best Value out of your Domain Name

In order to get the best value from a domain name it should send the right signal to both the search engines and the search engine users.

If you only depend on the fact that you own a long domain name that is an exact match for a valuable long tail keyword, you may have to go back to the drawing board and re-strategise. Your keyword domain name can work for you or against you.

When a domain name is properly utilised, it should contribute to your company branding efforts as well as being relevant. Consequently, any reference to your domain name will associate the website with the keyword. We suggest having a good think about how you can utilise your domain name to the fullest. There are also plenty of new domain names around (take a look at ours for example). You can put in your business name and the Namecheap database will give you some ideas.